Hurray! We're back!

Hurray! We're back!

Since my last post in May, we have been very busy bees...

We moved on over to the lone star state and after a few months of wandering, we're finally settled into a lovely apartment in a quiet sort of cow town. I like it. I like it a lot.

I have so many things going on, I hardly know where to start. I am mother to my baby but not so small baby, Lucy Goose. And I am so thankful to God for this gift in my life. She fills everyone's life with joy (even the fellow shoppers at the grocery store). I am working at and trying to improve my current etsy shop while also working with my mum to open a brand new shop! Stay tuned for more information on that!

Besides that, I cannot pass a thrift store without rummaging through the used goods. I have a list of projects for every weekend for the next 100 for me and my husband to work on together. I have a list of improvements for Lucy Goose's room (one of those is getting her to actually sleep in her own room). I have 5 new cookbooks all needing some flour and splatter. And I only wish I was so organized that eventually I would come close to the end of each list. But then I realize, that will never happen. I put off writing on this blog because I was convinced that it would only hinder me from achieving all that I want to achieve. But now, I have to relax. I will love and enjoy my daughter as she quickly grows up (and hopefully we will have another one on the way soon :)). I will be all that my husband needs and wants and I will make sure to fill our lives with adventure and beauty and love.

So, now that I have spilled all of my insides, I will move onto the fun stuff.

The last thing I wanted to post, back in May, was my friend's wedding for which I was the honored florist. I arranged the flowers for my own wedding and have done two and a half more since then and would love to do more and more!

The pictures are lovely if nothing else but for those of you who wish to do the flowers for you own wedding or special event... I hope to provide some helpful tips and ideas! If you do arrange your own flowers, be sure to have lots of helpers and a good wholesale source.

Enjoy!

Jenny and Francis

For this wedding and for my own, I purchased all flowers from the Los Angeles Flower Market which is quite an experience.

For these bouquets, we used white ranunculus, lavender, white wax flowers, eucalyptus, a few lamb's ear  and  some greens. We were going for small field-picked posies so the arranging was pretty simple. We gathered them loosely with a tall center and wrapped them first with floral tape and then with lace left over from the bride's gown. The green and grey turned out absolutely stunning. Each bridesmaid also wore satin roses in their hair to tie in the green color.

The centerpieces consisted of three different containers (perfect for random thrift store containers). One large, one medium and one small. The groom was intent on having artichokes on the tables which I loved but they could only be fetched from the local grocery store at a higher price. The white soup bowls had floral foam inside which helped them to stand up and out.

We were a little thrifty with the candles (tea lights and punched circles of kraft paper underneath) but they still looked lovely I think. If it is in your budget, different size pillar candles would be gorgeous. These arrangements would also look lovely on long rectangle tables instead of round.

In addition to the table centerpieces, we had two large glass jars filled with white lilacs, ranunculus and wax flowers. These were used at the gift table and buffet table.

Andrea and Clayton
 

 This wedding was so so bright and cheerful and beautiful.

I originally purchased all flowers from fiftyflowers.com and they were horrible. The flowers were damaged when they arrived and then their customer service was appalling. Just to let you know. In the end, we drove an hour to the closest city where we stopped at every flower shop and Trader Joe's we saw.

In the end, we used Sunflowers, light blue delphinium, white wax flowers, white snow balls, yellow spray roses and greens and they were stunning. Especially with the J. Crew vintage blue bridesmaids dresses.

These bouquets were much larger than the last but I used the same method... keeping the tall stems toward the center and surrounding them with sunflowers and spray roses. The boutonnieres were two spray roses with a sprig behind them and the corsages were a mini sunflower with white wax flowers behind them.

For the centerpieces, I purchased 6" galvanized buckets from BucketOutlet.com. We cut everything short and arranged them so that all the blooms stood right at the top of the bucket and some came over the side. The wedding was outside on a farm so these fit in perfectly.

Our Wedding

My favorite. Of course.

For our wedding, we went down to the LA Flower Market the day before our wedding only knowing that our colors were lemon and cranberry and just hoped we would find something perfect... and we did! We used white hydrangeas, white wax flowers, yellow poms and pink heather.

Our bouquets had a right side to them. We layered the hydrangeas in front with some poms throughout and then framed them with the long pink heather. Quite simple and quite lovely.

Our centerpieces were also very simple.  I purchased tall glass vases from Michaels (with a 20% off coupon - never go without a coupon). We wrapped raffia around the top and filled them with tall yellow sunflowers and tall woody greens.

I couldn't find any pictures of just the centerpieces so this one will have to do. It was getting on in the night and everyone was having a wonderful time! :)

We had rain that day. The only rain for a month before and after. So, the men (and some women) had to improvise with a huge blue tarp from Lowe's and a huge huge wooden beam (who knows where that came from). It was amazing what everyone did for us and it was a wonderful party. Pretty much the best day of my life! That day and having my baby day :)